With all the big Hollywood summer blockbusters getting all the hype, It's very easy to overlook a smaller film that doesn't have snakes on a plane. The Illusionist caught my eye as an interesting story a little off the beaten path. It's based on Steven Millhauser's short story Eisenheim The Illusionist. Neil Burger wrote and directed the low budget and barely released 2002 JFK assassination drama Interview With The Assassin but The Illusionist is his first film with a decent budget and cast. The film was produced by independent producer Bob Yari.
The time and place is early 1900s Vienna. Edward Abramowicz AKA Eisenheim The Illusionist (Edward Norton) is arrested by Police Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) after a performance. Flashback to Abramowicz as a teen (Aaron Johnson) playing with his friend Sophie (Eleanor Tomlinson). Because he's a commoner and she is royalty, her family won't allow her to be friends with him. Fifteen years later, Edward Abramowicz has become Eisenheim The Illusionist, an accomplished magician performing before spellbound Vienna audiences. Inspector Uhl is an amateur magician so of course he wants to know Eisenheim's secrets. But he also informs Eisenheim that he will be performing for Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) and he needs to watch himself.
At the command performance, Eisenheim recognizes that the young lady engaged to be married to Crown Prince Leopold is his childhood friend Sophie (Jessica Biel). The powerful Crown Prince is evil and feels he was embarassed by Eisenheim. He orders Inspector Uhl to do something about him. The film becomes a cat and mouse game between them. Meanwhile, future princess Sophie still has a locket given to her by Eisenhem when they were teens. They get together. Sophie decides to leave Leopold and then seems to get murdered. Uhl arrests a man for the murder but continues to hound Eisenheim at the behest of Leopold.
Meanwhile, Eisenheim becomes the sensation of Vienna by using his powers to raise the dead. When one of the dead he raises is Sophie, he is arrested and his show is closed. Further investigation by Uhl reveals Leopold to be the murderer and Leopold shoots himself in the head. Eisenheim disappears from Vienna and Uhl discovers as we do that nothing is as it seems. Eisenheim used his abilities to trick everyone. He's quite the illusionist.
A lot of period films made in modern times use the same type of bright colours seen in contemporary settings. Neil Burger and cinematographer Dick Pope (Nicholas Nickleby) have intentionally made The Illusionist in muted sepiatone colours. He wants to transport us to this time and place with no distractions. This is why the film was made in Prague. They wanted that old world atmosphere. Of course it's cheaper to film there too. Philip Glass's musical score adds to this and I felt the film was heavily influenced by silent films. Edward Norton gives a strong understated performance and Paul Giamatti is outstanding playing against type as the seemingly villainous Chief Inspector Uhl. It's his responsibility to sell the ending to the viewer and he does it all with facial expressions. Jessica Biel is mostly window dressing but Eisenheim & Uhl are understandably the focus of the film. The Illusionist is a film that will make you think about the how illusion can be made to seem real by a skilled performer. It transported me to a completely different world but was real enough so I could easily identify with the characters. I am looking forward to Neil Burger's next project. He hit a homer with The Illusionist.
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